Most Shared Stories Tagged: Seoul

South Koreans are spending money with reckless abandon, taking out loans and maxing out credit cards to pay their bills. They're doing it, usually, in hopes of improving their socioeconomic status, but economists say they may be banking on an unsteady foundation.

Frequent fliers at least get points for suffering through airline cuisine. Soon Germans will get the option of having it delivered to their homes. And what does a business class meal cost on the ground? About $12. Newly-released files from Britain's National Archives confirm that the country's WWII spies had to pass a seduction test by "special agent" Fifi. And 50 South Koreans will experience an oxymoron — competitive relaxation. All that in today's Global Scan.

In South Korea, direct physical punishment was banned in all schools last month. And now teachers and students there are mixed over what alternative should take its place. From Seoul, reporter Jason Strother has the story.

North Korea followed through on its threats and conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday, Monday night in the United States, believed to be its most powerful to date. The test was roundly criticized, even by North Korea's lone ally, China. A United Nations Security Council meeting has been called.

Housing prices have skyrocketed in South Korea in the past five years which is good news for sellers, but bad news for young Koreans trying to buy their first home, as Jason Strother reports from the capital Seoul.

Noxious dust storms rising up from Mongolia have plagued Korea. Now a small group of Korean and Mongolian activists are working together to attack the problem by planting trees in the Gobi desert. The World's Daniel Grossman has the story.

Jason Strother reports that the Olympic torch will arrive in South Korea this weekend and human rights activists in Seoul want to use the event to focus attention on China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees.